Robots in the Classroom

From kindergarten through high school, it's fun and educational to include robotics in the curriculum. Sometimes, however, it's difficult to find the resources needed to bring that just-right robotics education into your classroom. To help, Vex Robotics has created an Education Web Page, which provides information about key resources for robotics education. The site includes robotics packages for middle school and high school and free educational materials to put robots to work in learning. Another excellent robotics resource area is the Botball site, which offers a Botball robot store/catalog, a robotics competition, and a list of robot resource links. The fee for BotBall competition includes classroom materials such as controllers, sensors, motors, software, tee shirts, curricular materials, technical support, and other items to get a school robotic team going. If you are interested in using robots with younger children, you'll fall in love with the little Bee Bots (robots that look like happy bumble bees). The Terrapin Logo site offers ideas for use of Bee Bots, Pro-Bots (a yellow car robot), and Roamer Turtles (happy turtles). Bee Bots and Roamer Turtles can be used with preschool and primary-age children, and while older elementary-age students will love using Bee Bots and Roamer Turtles, they'll find the Pro-Bots more challenging. Bee Bots, Pro-Bots, and Roamer Turtles can be used in a variety of subject areas both for learning and reinforcing learning.